GOLF; Citing Role of Women in War, Burk Raises Pressure on Augusta

Martha Burk intensified her campaign to force Augusta National Golf Club to admit women as members yesterday by invoking the war in Iraq, saying that women can serve in the armed forces and die in combat but cannot join the home of the Masters.

''It's an insult to the 250,000 women serving in the United States military,'' she said at a news conference outside City Hall.

''It's appalling that the women who are willing to lay down their lives for democratic ideals should be shut out of this club.''

With the Masters two weeks away, Burk said, the board of the National Council of Women's Organizations, which she chairs, authorized her to connect the issue of the Augusta membership with women in the armed forces. She acknowledged that the war was far more serious, and that the group ''runs the risk of trivializing itself'' if it does not watch its tone.

''Ms. Burk will say anything to get publicity,'' Greenspan said in a statement, ''but if she is invoking the troops to draw more attention to herself, only three words apply -- shame on you.''

In a subsequent interview, Burk said: ''Shame on the club for sticking to its policy of discrimination. They want to rationalize it in any way they can. Women can and are fighting for this country and they can't get into the club. If they can't defend it, they attack me.''

She added: ''I don't accept that this is another way to get media. We don't have trouble getting media.''

Augusta National contends that as a private club, it can determine its membership and points to numerous clubs and organizations that are gender specific. But critics like Burk say the club has a responsibility not to discriminate in its membership policies because it opens itself to the public for a world-renowned event like the Masters, which is televised by CBS Sports.

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Burk appeared at the news conference, which was called by several City Council members and rights groups to denounce Augusta's membership policy and CBS's decision to broadcast the Masters.

Some of the officials wore T-shirts that said CBS ''Continues to Broadcast Segregation.'' Eight council members who sponsored a resolution that condemned Augusta's gender policy and called on CBS not to televise the tournament hope to pass it by April 9, the day before the Masters starts.

CBS officials have said the network will carry the tournament. A spokeswoman said yesterday that she would not comment.

Burk plans to have a group of 200 to 250 demonstrate against Augusta's gender policy and the corporations whose executives belong to the club from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 12, the Saturday of Masters week.

''When the Ku Klux Klan came out for the club, the silence was telling,'' Burk said in the interview. ''Not a single C.E.O. renounced his support for the club.''

Her application for a permit to protest across the street from and on either side of the club's gate was denied this month. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in United States District Court on March 12 to block Augusta, Ga., from enforcing its newly revised protest ordinance. The suit was filed on behalf of Burk's organization and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, which is led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Sheriff Ronnie Strength of Richmond County granted Burk and others permission to demonstrate in an area owned by the club about a third of a mile from its entrance.

While hoping for a hearing next week on a request for an injunction against the ordinance, Jack Batson of the American Civil Liberties Union in Augusta said there was no certainty that the presiding judge would be done with a trial in another city. Batson is also holding settlement talks with the lawyers for Richmond County, but he said the two sides had not exchanged offers.

Although Augusta has not backed down, Burk said she has one clear victory: John W. Snow resigned from the club last year when he was nominated by President Bush to be secretary of the Treasury.

''He couldn't aspire to the job if he's associated with this club,'' she said.